Major housing development near Uckfield approved at appeal.

In a decision notice published on Friday (March 15), a planning inspector has approved proposals to build up to 60 homes at the Mockbeggars Farm site, to the east of London Road and to the north of Ringles Cross.

The outline scheme, from Obsidian Strategic Asset Management Ltd, had been refused by Wealden District Council’s Planning Committee North in June last year. This refusal went contrary to advice from council planning officers, after councillors reached the view the development would have an unacceptable impact on the area.

However, the council took the decision to withdraw from defending its reasons for refusal. This decision was reached in December, after the developer succeeded in moving the appeal to a six-day public inquiry, despite the council arguing this to be ‘disproportionate’ to the application.

The move to an inquiry posed a challenge for the council, as it needed to seek outside experts in ecology to defend part of the committee’s decision. Officers were unable to play this role, having previously advocated for approval of the application.

Despite running a procurement process, the council was unable to find an ecologist willing to take on the defence. One ecologist even undertook a paid review of the case and advised “they were not confident on the adequacy of the case as presented.”

As a result, the authority opted to withdraw from the appeal, with public minutes from the time saying this was due to fears it “would be exposed to a significant award of costs.”

After the council’s withdrawal, the appeal process went ahead as two-day hearing instead of a full public inquiry. This hearing was attended by representatives of Uckfield Town Council and the Mockbeggars Residents Steering Group, which put forward arguments against the proposals.

However, the planning inspector found in favour of the applicant, judging the scheme to have ‘no harm’ to ecology or highway safety and only some limited harm to landscape.

In their decision notice, the inspector said: “The proposal would deliver a number of benefits, primarily the provision of housing in an area of acknowledged housing land shortage. This carries very significant weight. The provision of affordable housing also carries significant weight. There would be other benefits too.

“Taken as a whole, I consider that the adverse impacts of the proposal do not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits when assessed against the policies in the [National Planning Policy] Framework taken as a whole.”

The aftermath of the inspector’s decision was briefly discussed at a meeting of the council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Monday (March 18).Responding to a question from Labour councillor Daniel Manvell, Stacey Robins, the council’s head of planning and environmental services, confirmed that the developer had not put forward an application for costs, despite having previously indicated its intention to do so.